As more and more home and office electronic devices (eg. computers, tablets, notebooks, smart phones, etc.) join the ranks of consumer products that couple and communicate over a network, methods to troubleshoot connectivity are evolving. Diagnostic tools such as Ping and traceroute are examples of commonly used applications to determine the route or data path, and for measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Ping is a computer network utility used to test host accessibility and to measure round-trip time for a message sent from the host to an internet protocol (IP) destination. Traceroute utilities work by sending packets with low time-to-live (TTL) fields. The TTL specifies how many hops the packet is allowed before it is returned. The last host to receive a packet before the TTL is exceeded returns the packet with an error reply and the last host identifies itself in the return packet. By sending a series of packets with increasing TTL's, the traceroute can identify the path of a data route and intermediate hosts.
The increasing number and complexity of computer networks adds to the difficulty of diagnosing network problems and the identification of an actual source or sources of these problems. Broadband connections, while extremely popular, are challenging to troubleshoot for the average user. Additionally, support systems for customers such as helpdesks can be costly for companies to maintain. Opportunities will continue to arise for improved user education, support services, and more automated network connectivity and diagnostic customer tools.